AMHVoices:Grand coalition will be marriage of convenience

The launch of Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) led by former Vice-President Joice Mujuru has brought with it renewed hope for the formation of a grand coalition among opposition parties.

By Sibusiso Ndlamini,Our Reader

ZPF Leader Joyce Mujuru & MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai

Marriages of convenience have more demerits and less merits.

If the truth be told, each member of the coalition suffers from a sense of insecurity. Zapu, which is led by Dumiso Dabengwa, has noted that it is open to a coalition with Mujuru’s ZimPF.

Zapu regional spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa believes that ZimPF and Zapu share the same background of the liberation struggle, hence they should coalesce.

Though they share similar political backgrounds, uniting the two parties is just a pie in the sky.

The downside of forming an alliance of political parties is that all the leaders of different parties would be craving for power.

In the event that the union does take place, things like a slight digression from the common agenda or misjudging a partner’s sentiment can cause great damage to the union.

If a single party withdraws its support and walks out of the alliance, the entire unit faces the threat of becoming irrelevant.

In grand coalitions, every party has certain constraints, which often force them to ignore their partners’ anti-democratic activities. They deliberately try not to criticise their partners because if they do so, the alliance would become null and void.

Since its launch, ZimPF has been saying it is ready to work with every political party which is willing.

However, alliances between political parties are often affected by the differences in ideology among the leaders of those parties. Ideologies of disgruntled politicians usually affect the output. Too many cooks spoil the soup.

Growth of factionalism on the basis of different parties is a by-product of coalition politics. This creates fissures within the alliance and also damages the fabric of communal harmony.

6 Responses to AMHVoices:Grand coalition will be marriage of convenience

Grand coalition to reverse land distribution and indigenisation is terrible for any established political party in Africa. A reversal of he gains of the majority is a political suicide..MDC-T,ZPF deal with that

there are no gains to talk about. only you zanu connected people benefitted and destroyed the agricultural sector. dai zvainzi munogona kurima kwacho. multiple farm owners (chefs) …. yet only 250k peasants were setlled out of 15mill pple. very insignificant! The rest is in the hands of the chefs! Now we import every year from Zambia, a country we usd to supply…Nicole the same farmer you chased is feeding you annually! nxa! . In any case…which country has ever made everyone a farmer? why must we be forced to be farmers? we want to thrive in other sectors of the economy which you have also destoyed. The coalition must take out zanu thieves…and the rest we will figure out later. As for Land audit, it must be the first thing on action list…and we will weed you out multiple farm owners…then go to land utilisation audit…and weed out the lazy weekend farmers. and settle propoer farmers regardless of race..as Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria did. We are tired of being a basket case for the sake of sentimentality!

Coalitions do not mean they form a single party. They can form a GNU as happened in 2009 although they run different parties. By the way the GNU was running far much better than the ZANU govt of today….and improved lives.
For now, any option, possibility, opportunity to remove the thieves is worth exploring. We will fix the rest later.

Each party to its own. People need to decide whether to eat marutsi, deal with the only truly tested party in national opposition politics or any other newbies or the grand theft party. A TV debate must be called for and all those aspiring to lead the country must contribute and be ready to face the entire press and independent journalists. We’re tired of weak ideas which have not strengthened national institutions.

Initially, I was a great supporter of an opposition coalition before I realised that those members expelled from the ruling party in 2014, besides their dented past, wanted to join mainstream opposition wing in an ‘equal capacity’ thereby complicating the political matrix in a scenario where (opposition) leaders hardly see eye to eye. The final beneficiary is the purported common enemy out of the whole opposition fiasco. Tsvangirai, to the best of my knowledge, cannot accept to play a second fiddle while the PF will miscalculate through huge political gatherings and presume a win and contemplate to run singlehandedly which will automatically be a walkover for Zanu PF. Without fear of contradiction, Mujuru and Tsvangirai remain the stumbling block in the opposition politics. I do not wish to challenge their personality but they are sorrounded by very egocentric people who cannot allow either of them to accept a subordinate role. In the circumstances, I can only resume my earlier call for a coalition if and only if a deal is brokered by these two leaders for the sake of the suffering majority. Currently, things are more complicated than ever in the opposition politics and attempts to forge ahead alone is an exercise in futility. Good luck !

The purpose of the coalition is not just to remove zanu from power, but it has to go a long way into levelling the play field as far as elections are concerned. There are many things which are not right in our country becoz of the ruling part which suppresses democracy. Starting with the security sector, devolution of power, media gagging, patronage in government. After achieving this, parties can go to the next election on their own.